Facebook Trials Adding ‘Buy’ Button Directly On Retailer Pages

Facebook is the most popular social playground on the planet, which is something we’ve been saying for quite some time now. The reason it’s been able to avoid the same fate as Myspace is because it’s constantly changing, adapting, and yes, even innovating. It’s not just a social network anymore, but a place to play mobile games, keep abreast of current news, and soon it will be a place of commerce.

As part of an plan to prioritize Pages on the site, Facebook has begun testing shops with integrated “buy” buttons. This isn’t entirely new, as Facebook has already been testing buy buttons in ads, but now the social network wants to take things to the next level by offering the same feature for dedicated shops.

In a statement provided to BuzzFeed, Facebook’s product marketing manager Emma Rodgers said things are still in the testing phase, but for shops that have the buy button, it allows an “entire shopping experience to occur within Facebook,” everything from finding a product on up through the checkout process.

“With the shop on the page, we’re now providing businesses with the ability to showcase their products directly on the page,” Rodgers added.

What Facebook is attempting to do here is give its users more incentive to stay on the site rather than to venture off to places Yelp and Foursquare. In that respect, you can think of Facebook as the Walmart of the online world — it wants to offer everything in one place.

It’s not yet clear when the feature will be made widely available and/or which partners Facebook is working with.